rockman_x_2002

It is an older thread, but I'm actually glad it was bumped because it does give me an opportunity to give an update on this same SX-64. When I bought it one year ago, it was mostly working properly, except after I got home with it, I did discover a slight defect with the SID chip in that some sounds didn't seem to work. I swapped the SID out with the one from my working C64, and now it has fully working sound. As a side note, I put the SX-64's SID into my breadbin C64, and for whatever reason, it seems to work fine in that machine. So I've left it as such. I also managed to get a chance not to long ago to give some attention to the disk drive, since it originally couldn't read disks, and the ejection mechanism was kinda borked as well. I got it out, gave the read/write head a thorough cleaning, fixed the ejector arm, and I'm happy to report that the SX-64 is now 100% fully healthy!!

No, it wouldn't. Part of the charm of the SX-64 these days, at least for me, is how it screams "old tech" with its CRT display, 5.25" disk drive, and all the other trimmings. That said, if someone could develop a thinner, lighter version of the C64 that's a bit more portable, it would still be handier. Although I wouldn't cannibalize a perfectly good SX-64 for the job. In fact, what I would rather have is a C64 laptop, not unlike the one Ben Heck once built.

What about the Yar? Maybe he could serve as the projectile-type fighter (think Samus or Mega Man in the current Smash Bros. iteration).

Would these also be further bootlegs from the guy: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fireman-Game-Opcode-Coleco-ColecoVision-ADAM-Computer-/182114048476?hash=item2a66d7d9dc:g:Hj8AAOSwll1W1dKP http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fireman-Game-Opcode-Coleco-ColecoVision-ADAM-Computer-/182114048476?hash=item2a66d7d9dc:g:Hj8AAOSwll1W1dKP http://www.ebay.com/itm/COLECOVISION-JuiceBox-Cartridge-Fully-Compatible-with-The-Super-Game-Module-SGM-/182114842550?hash=item2a66e3f7b6:g:9gYAAOSwp5JWVgxS If so, I'll report them as well.

I can totally understand, and I 100% agree that the 7800 does need some boost in the audio department, whether that's through POKEY, HOKEY, or some other solution entirely. As for the reason why you might develop a game for the 7800, given the 7800 doesn't have the features you might desire? The reasons are actually myriad. Chief among them, as a hobbyist developer, might simply to be to see if it can be done. Recall that in the early days of computing, that "can-do" spirit led to a number of innovations that furthered the computing industry, namely by producing hardware that supplemented the computers that were already present. In that case, the base computer was a good start, but perhaps what was needed was a simple enhancement or two. It would be silly to scrap the entire system and simply design a whole new system from the ground up that offered little more than a few simple improvements. Of course, if you were talking about developing a game from the usual publisher's standpoint of today, developing for the Atari 7800, and indeed developing for any console older than the current generation of consoles, would be ludicrously silly. But for those of us that are in this hobby, that's not the case. It's impressive to see a game come out on a platform with features that would have made our jaws slam thunderously to the floor back in the late 80s. I think for developers working on systems like the 7800 and other retro platforms, it's just the thrill of working with that hardware, trying to see what can possibly be squeezed out of the hardware, and then how improvements could be made that further extended the hardware capabilities of the system. A prime example of this practice in action is the NES. Consider that the base system was actually quite limited, and it was the introduction of memory management controllers in the system's cartridges that really made the system capable of doing so very much more than it would've done straight out of the box. However, it was often the case that a game's design was laid out first, then a search for existing MMCs was done to see if the game could be matched up to spec with something already in existence. If an appropriate MMC couldn't be found, then that prompted the development of a brand new MMC with all the necessary enhancements, with an eye toward future-proofing by adding features that other developers might find a good use for. At least, that seems to be the usual development cycle for a large majority of the titles that came out for the NES.

This is the largest issue I tend to think of when it comes to things like this, even though having a working DPC solution would be interesting from a developer's point of view (myself being a software developer, but not necessarily a 7800 programmer). The approach of building hardware in anticipation that homebrew developers will want to use it is a sort of "If we build it, they will come" type mentality. It's fine, except the problem is you're building a piece of hardware that developers now have to figure out how to use. The problem is, you may be missing features that developers would be knowledgeable about and would be handy to use, but because they are not present, it causes developers to have to somewhat shoehorn a less-than-ideal solution into the mix that may or may not work (I run into this often when using third-party API libraries that kinda-somewhat do what I want, but not just exactly quite, and I always end up having to develop some sort of shim to make up the difference, and that shim is often more difficult to come up with than if I'd just done the darn thing myself). To that end, a much more reasonable approach would be for a develop to come up with the idea for a game, with features that may or may not be available on a stock 7800. Then, the developer needs to sit down and make a list of the missing features that are necessary to make the project complete. From that list, contact someone familiar with hardware development, and create a project that can collaborate on that one particular game. In doing so, you'll be able to fail fast, come up with gotcha scenarios that might be missed if either the software or hardware is developed independently from one another, and there's a far better chance that you end up developing a hardware solution that other developers would find easy to use, because not only do you have the hardware available with excellent documentation, but you also have an example game that shows how to utilize it. Hardware developed like this, where the actual software development is the impetus behind the hardware's design, seems to be far more successful.

Keeping the systems in soft cases as Jin has said, and sometimes putting something protective over the screen like a thin layer of very soft, cushioned foam padding is probably about the best you'll be able to practically do. In my experience, every handheld I've ever owned has managed to pick up a scratch or two over years of use, no matter how well I've taken care of them, and I treat all my stuff with kid gloves. The upside is that, for systems that are backlit, if you only have these very minor scratches and no major digs into the screen, they're hardly noticeable and shouldn't interfere with gameplay at all while actually playing the system. Sitting on a shelf, though, you can definitely see the surface scratches, especially in a very well-lit environment, and if you're a collector then that might be a real issue for you. The problem becomes a bit more exacerbated with non-backlit systems like the Game Boy or Game Boy Pocket, since the scratches would be visible over the display. As a side-note, this seems to be less of an issue with newer handhelds (Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Neo Geo Pocket Color, etc.), as those screen covers seem to be quite a bit more scratch-resistant than earlier consoles, and I have yet to see a single scratch on those machines that I own. All that being said, Game Boy replacement screen lenses are usually quite cheap, easy to find, and easy to install. Some of the other consoles, while a little more expensive but not much more, also have screen covers available for them, so if you have a handheld with a particularly gnarly screen, you can always do that. I would assume that these screen covers, if they're newly produced, are made out of something more scratch-resistant than the original, and that could very well help matters. But yes, at absolute minimum, go buy a premium case to store your handhelds, especially if you transport them around a lot. Even if you can't find a case specifically made for your machine, you might be able to buy something like a carrying case made for point-and-shoot cameras that are suitably sized, and cut out a block of foam to place over the screen to protect it while it's in the case, and that should help at least somewhat.

Well, I've had the Turbografx-16 now for about six months and I've fallen in love with this little machine. Lots of excellent arcade ports and shooters, and it's quickly become one of my go-to consoles for that era. So I decided a couple of weeks ago to add to that a TurboExpress handheld, and that arrived over the weekend (fully re-capped, so everything's all nice and working properly). But as many reviewers have said before, the thing is an absolute battery hog. I knew it would be going into it, being that I also own the Atari Lynx (both models) and a Game Gear, and experience similar results with those machines. So I want to use an AC adapter with this most of the time except on rare occasions where that wouldn't be possible. I know the console's official adapter is a 7V DC, 700mA with the center positive. I have a universal adapter that I can set the polarity and is 1200mA, but the voltage selector only has options for 3V, 4.5V, 6V, 7.5V, 9V, and 12V. Obviously, the closest option would be 7.5V, but my question is would that extra 0.5V have any ill effect on the console, or would it be within the TurboExpress's tolerance to accept that voltage? Naturally, I don't want to damage something this precious.

Well, that's a... thing... Actually, quite seriously, I do wonder what it actually feels like to play a game using it, as far as comfort goes and all. I've tried many third-party joysticks, and so far the only one I've ever remotely liked was been a Wico Command Control bat handle that I picked up at a flea market for $5. The base is pretty large, and holding it in your hands pulls enough leverage to give me cramps, so I usually end up holding it down on a table like an actual arcade stick. Given the size of this thing, I wonder if that would be a pretty similar experience.

I own a Light Sixer that doesn't work, and a four-switch Woody promotional model ("NOT FOR RESALE" stamped into the bottom) which works great. That one is my go-to for when I need an actual 2600 console. Honorable mentions (i.e., machines that can play 2600 carts but aren't actually a 2600) include my 7800 and my Colecovision with the expansion module. While the 7800 is usually handier, sometimes I'll grab the actual 2600 down for compatibility with stuff that my 7800 just doesn't seem to like (i.e., some games played through the Harmony cart, and Burgertime specifically).

It's been a while since I posted an update but I thought I'd bring everybody up to date. I've been fairly busy so I haven't been able to really work on the TRS-80 that much to get the disk drives going until the last day or two. During that time, however, I did find someone who posted for sale on eBay a set of fully-working power supply boards and a full wiring harness out of a Model 4, which I purchased. Thankfully, it does appear that the X-caps have already been replaced, so I didn't have to go through doing that. Installed one of the new power boards to replace the old non-functioning one for the disk drives, fired the system up, and everything comes up and works just fine, it seems. So it looks like I now have a fully working TRS-80 Model III. So, my next step is to build or buy a cassette cable and lay hands on a cassette recorder that will be compatible with the system. I saw that Walmart still carries these older-style cassette recorder with all the appropriate ports (ear/speaker, mic, and aux), so I'm guessing that will work so far as the cassette recorder part is concerned (though if someone has better knowledge on that please let me know). As for the cable, I've found some schematics online and it appears the cable is actually fairly simple to build. In fact, it's somewhat similar to what I would also need for my TI-99/4a, so if I go through the trouble making the cable, I might be inclined to do so, and build an adapter that lets me convert the cable from one machine to the other for convenience. So the next question I have regards getting software onto the thing. Cassette software I figure would be simple (just use the aforementioned cassette cable on a PC sound card to output data to the system), but disk software is another matter. Is there a recommended way to get disk images that work in a TRS-80 emulator on my PC onto actual diskettes or, failing that, a device that runs those images directly on the TRS-80? Something similar to the 1541 Ultimate II cartridge for the Commodore 64, for example, or even as simple as an X1541 cable so I can write to an actual disk is what I had in mind, but I have no idea if such an animal exists.

I've always thought the game needed a few obstacles besides holes in the floor. Since you're talking about the chefs emerging out of bistros, why not make the playfields something like a series of differently-shaped food courts, with a few tables and chairs scattered on the playfield. Tables would be impassible, but if you run into a chair, you'll trip over it and fall, stunning you for just a few seconds while the chefs close in. If you're holding down the button, though, and Charley (or whatever character you control) isn't holding a food item, you can shove the chairs a little distance in any direction, and if it makes contact with a chef, it will cut the legs out from under him and cause him to fall to the floor for a moment (but the chefs would mostly be smart enough to avoid walking to chairs on their own, unless you trick them into it). Could be a useful mechanic to knock down a chef, then throw food at him for a combo and some extra points.

Quick update. I was able to replace both of the X capacitors on the two power supply boards, and that went well and I had no problems with that part of the project. Unfortunately, the disk drive power board still does not seem to be supplying any power output to the drives. I checked the molex connectors that provide 12V and -12V to the disk drives, and both of those have zero output, so there must be something else wrong with that particular power board. I suppose the next thing would either be to find out what component (or components) on this board has malfunctioned and try to repair those as well, or see into possibly just finding a known-working replacement board from somewhere else. Just wondering what you might recommend at this point.

Well, as luck would have it, all the replacement parts from both Mouser and Digi-key arrived on the same day. So far, the only repair I've had time to do is replacing the two pots,and that went well. The brightness and contrast are adjustable as they should be, and everything appears to be working as it should. So my next step will be replacing the two caps, which will probably be sometime tomorrow. Since everything came in at once, I'll use the polypropylene/polyester ones for this job, and I'll keep the other two caps for spares just in case I ever do need them, either for this one or if I ever come across another TRS-80 or something else that uses these.

Awesome. If I can get that kind of lifespan out of it, that'll be plenty of time for me to enjoy the thing, and besides that, after that length of time I would imagine it would probably have developed a whole host of other random issues well before a new cap gives out on it. I did order the second set of X Caps from Digi-key, so those should be arriving right about the same day as the others come in. I'll just store the extra caps in safe keeping for spares just in case I ever do need them. My goals are actually quite simple: A fully working TRS-80 Model III that isn't on fire.

Thanks for the link. I had already placed an order with Mouser for the two caps as well as the two pots, but I will go ahead and order a couple of these as well tonight, so hopefully they'll get here around the same timeframe. I also spoke with an electrician friend of ours who has taught electrical engineering at the college level for some number of years. I explained the situation to him, showed him the two original pots that I took out of the machine, and he said that he would imagine their power rating around be 1 or 2W, given the application of them, and the fact that the monitor seems to be getting its power from the +12V, 2.02A line from the power supply. His advice was to find a similarly-sized pot with same shaft size and type (if possible), rated at 2W if I could find it just to be safe, and to make sure I got the resistance correct. I couldn't find pots with the flatted shaft like the originals are, but I did find similar length with the specs needed for everything else (they're Honeywells). These are as close to the existing ones as I could find on Mouser's website, so hopefully I'll be able to get these to work: http://www.mouser.com/search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=0virtualkey0virtualkey380C3500 http://www.mouser.com/search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=0virtualkey0virtualkey380C3500K I can go ahead and install the pots into the machine first and test those, since the power supply board is still hooked up, and it's working fine for the moment. That'll at least give me a chance to get those installed and that part of the project done with. Then once the X caps get here, I can put those in as well and hopefully that'll get everything up and running smoothly again.

As a follow-up to this, I took a few pictures of the original pots that came out of the machine, front and back. In the picture with the two pots and adjusters pointed toward the camera, the one on top is the 500Ω one (with red coloring on the back), and the bottom is the 500k (silver backing). Both are manufactured by Centralab USA. Hopefully some of that information may help determine the right power rating I need to look for, and where to find a suitable replacement for these.

As a followup, here's a picture of one of my power boards. This is the disk one, which has the capacitor that I believe to be bad, and I've circled it: That's the only X-capacitor that I've found on this board, and the other main board is exactly like this, although its capacitor does look to be in somewhat better shape for the time being. Again, I intend to replace those two capacitors with two of these: http://www.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=PME271M610MR30virtualkey64620000virtualkey80-PME271M610MR30 Now I tried cleaning the two potentiometers, and while one of them did loosen up a bit (though not enough to be useable), the other is completely seized up and wouldn't budge, even with some force. Therefore, since I'm going to have to replace one of these, and since I've already de-soldered both of them, I figure I might as well save myself trouble later down the road and replace both with new parts. The question is, what do I need to order for these? I know that one of them is a 500 ohm, and the other is a 500k ohm, but there are no other indicators on the housing of these pots. Also, both pots have a D-type shaft which also matches the adjustment wheel's center hole. I want to make sure to get the right kind of potentiometers to replace these with so as not to damage the computer itself, so I'm looking for advice there. It would be great if I could get something from Mouser, since I'm already ordering the caps from them, and that way I could just get everything shipped to me in a single package.

That is correct, I'm only seeing the "CASS?" prompt at startup. The reason I suspect the power board and not the actual disk controller is because neither disk drive shows any activity of any kind. Were it the disk controller, but not the power board, then I would've expected the disk drives would both spin for a moment on power on, and their LEDs would light up for a moment as well. None of that is happening, which I why I thought the issue might be with the power board itself. As to the X caps, I had researched that and knew that those were prone to blowing out, especially with age. My aim initially was simply to test and make sure the TRS-80 turns on at all, and to gauge about how functional it is (and as it turns out, it's mostly alright). My next step was to replace the X caps on both the disk and main power boards, because it's very evident that the ones present are indeed the original ones. So good, bad, or indifferent, the old ones are coming out and new ones are going in their place for pure safety reasons. After I do this, I'll test the machine again, and if the disk drives still don't function, then that should pinpoint the disk controller as you've said, and I will investigate that further. Also, I will grab some Deoxit and give that a try on the locked up display control pots and whatever else I can find that needs some cleaning work done. Thank you. Also, sm3, I did watch the video you posted, and it's very helpful, thank you. The boards present in my TRS-80 Model III are a bit different from the one in the video, of course, but I have found a guide that shows the X caps and what you need to replace them with and all that. So I think between that guide and the video you gave me, that should be plenty enough to help me complete this little project. I've not done a whole lot of soldering work, but it does appear to be fairly simple, and I believe it's something I should be able to do without too much trouble. Worst case, I know someone here at work in IT that solders stuff all the time, and I'm sure he could help get me going if I see that I can't get things to work out. Edit: Forgot to mention, too, sm3. The Model III my friend sent me contained a couple of pennies, just like the guy in the video showed. She said she put them in there as a little kid, believing the computer to be a penny bank years ago (fortunately, this was after the computer had been sat in a corner and not powered on for some length of time, and in fact, wasn't powered on in almost 20 years until I got it and plugged it in a couple of days ago). So I suppose depositing money inside TRS-80s must be a fairly common thing.

So a friend of mine sent me a TRS-80 Model III that her dad owned, along with a handful of software. It's a 48k model with two disk drives, so it was the high-end Model III that Radio Shack sold. It arrived a few days ago, and I've been checking it out to make sure everything works, and for the most part, it appears to be in pretty good condition. It's seen little use over the years, and has spent a large amount of its time in storage. Unfortunately, it does seem to have developed some issues over the years, and I wanted to check with the community to get some advice on what I need to do to repair these things, and if I need parts, where I can get those. Here are the issues I've found thus far: The brightness and contrast pots are both seized up. My guess is due to oxidation over the years, possibly from being in storage and not really being used a lot. Neither of the two disk drives seem to be getting any power. The computer will turn on and boots up with the "CASS?" message in the upper-left corner. The disk drives do not spin when switched on. I'm suspecting the power board that controls the disk drives, and my guess is one or more capacitors have failed. I did a quick glance at the board last night and didn't see any that looked like they had been physically burned or anything like that, but I can supply photos later tonight if that would be of help. One of the disk drives has a broken latch. The latch can still operate and will still hold the disk down, but one of the plastic bits has broken off, and sometimes when you set the latch, the drive mechanism inside pops loose and goes back up. It's a minor issue, and shouldn't affect anything so long as I slowly set the latch and make sure it's secured down. This is the least of the issues I've found, and one I can easily fix later. The most pressing of the issues, of course, is the power board, because the brightness and contrast are already set at a comfortable level. It's just that at some point I'd like to fix that as well so I can make adjustments as needed later.

Unfortunately nothing, at least for the U2. Just straight loading off the Micro SD card, which is fine for some stuff, but can be a bit of a pain for certain games and things. For stuff that takes longer to load, of course, I have a 1541 with JiffyDOS installed in it, and I can run the C64's JiffyDOS on an EasyFlash 3 and just use a real drive to get the job done. That's for stuff that absolutely has tohave JiffyDOS to load in any reasonable amount of time. That's why I'm really hoping JiffyDOS will start working one 3.x actually drops to non-beta status, or at least is fixed in a beta in the near-future. It wouldn't do me any good at all to go back to 2.6 because my breadbin C64 is my primary machine that I like to use and keep handy, and JiffyDOS just doesn't want to work on it. At least not with the U2 cart (EasyFlash 3 cart works fine).

I jumped on the latest 3.x beta. It's good, and I do like it, although it kinda sucks about the whole JiffyDOS compatibility thing. Although oddly enough I could only ever get JiffyDOS working on my C64C anyway, so that issue isn't affecting me all that much. I'm hoping that once JiffyDOS compatibility is restored I'll be able to use it on my breadbin C64 and SX-64.

Looks like gold spray paint if you ask me.

Yes. Mine is precisely like that. I have a 42" Sony Bravia that has a combination component/composite input, and the yellow video cable plugs into the green "Y" input on the TV. On my particular TV, the color of the input jack is green on the outside, and the inner part is also yellow. Additionally, this will usually be labeled on the back of the TV as something similar to "Y / Video" if it supports both. Definitely check your manual, and if that isn't handy, look at the labeling on the back of your TV and see if it says "Video" somewhere among the component inputs as well.

Simple. I'd part with my Sega Saturn. I picked it up cheap (around $10), and only got a couple of games for it. Never actually bought anything else for it because Saturn stuff just doesn't turn up all that often here. However, it's a bit unfair as what I'd consider my Saturn "collection" isn't a collection at all. Merely four games. And there's almost no nostalgic attachment to it whatsoever, though I do enjoy it. Now, a question that would make you think: What if you were forced to give up your entire collection, save for three systems. What three could you absolutely not bare to part ways with? That's a tougher pill to swallow. For me, I'd say the Atari 2600, NES, and Game Boy. Those are the systems I tend to have the most emotional attachment to.